Last updated: December 17, 2024
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Pelton Expedition - 1900
Uncompahgre Valley
The main draw for settlers in the Uncompahgre Valley was to grow and sell farm crops to people living in the high-altitude towns supporting the mining industry. There was only a small amount of water from the Uncompahgre River that could be used for irrigation. By the early 1890s, people began to seriously look at the Gunnison River, flowing through the Black Canyon, as a source for water for irrigation. From this, the desire of a tunnel to divert the water evolved.John Pelton, a local promoter, had seen the ups and downs of mining by the time he and his family moved to Montrose. He was best known throughout western Colorado for a reservoir that he built and opened to the public. Decades before common use of air conditioning, people in the Uncompahgre Valley made summer excursions to Pelton's Lake to cool off from the mid-afternoon heat. The lake had bath houses, shade trees, stocked fish for recreation, and wooden boats.
The Tunnel Idea
The original idea of a tunnel is credited to the miner and farmer Frank Lauzon. He created enough interest that a line for such a tunnel was surveyed in 1894. The cost seemed prohibitive, and no one had ever truly made a trip through the canyon to survey if digging was possible.By the summer of 1900, many farmers were fed up with the water problems that plagued the valley. A plan began to take shape for a trip through the canyon. Organized by Pelton, the exploring party included John Curtis and E.B. Anderson from Delta, rancher Frank Hovey, and the superintendent of the Montrose Electric Light and Power Company William Torrence.Each member of the expedition had something to offer. Curtis was a surveyor, Hovey has knowledge of the canyon rim, Pelton had the boats and equipment, and Torrence helped coordinated the possibility of generating electricity. Torrence also served as the expedition photographer and used a Kodak to document their trip.
Courtesy of Denver Public Library Special Collections, Z-7372
Through Black Canyon
The crew rode the train to Cimarron where the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad entered the upper canyon. They put their wooden boats into the river and made their way downstream. Although they expected to make the trip quickly, they soon found out that the heavy wooden boats were unable to navigate the rocky rapids. On the second day, one of the boats crashed among the rocks and sent splinters and into the river. They used ropes and manpower to haul the remaining boat around the rocks and along the riverbank.1900 was an election year and Pelton was involved in the local Republican Party. For Pelton represent the district at the state convention, the crew scrambled out of the gorge on the south side of the canyon. While in Denver, Pelton lobbied state and federal legislators for funds for a tunnel. When he returned, they hiked back down to resume the survey.
As they worked downstream, the journey became increasingly difficult. Accounts of the trip vary and are somewhat distorted. There were heavy rains, the gradient of the river increased, and the expedition became battered and worn. The rapids became more dangerous and harrowing; the canyon walls rose higher and became narrower. After heaving the boat around a particularly noisy and terrifying rapid, the walls closed in. They negotiated a short distance down through a continuous cascade to a point where the shorelines vanished, and the party had to make it between the narrow passage of cliffs. Hovey and Anderson swamped the boat in the pool of water in front of this scene.
Courtesy of Denver Public Library Special Collections, Z-7399
The trip's end did not mean failure. Their excursion brought attention from many in power around Colorado and in Washington, D.C. about Black Canyon, and the possibility of a tunnel.